Woman stays on the move in health care field

Monday

Mar 18, 2013 at 12:30 PM

By all accounts, when Nancy Perez-Furr puts on her health care hat, she brings a plethora of unique dynamics to the table.

BY DWIGHT DAVISThe Dispatch

She speaks the medical language and Spanish, too. But, it doesn't seem she would have time to catch her breath.This mother of two, active children is also a full-time nurse, student and a teacher. By all accounts, when Nancy Perez-Furr puts on her health care hat, she brings a plethora of unique dynamics to the table. The 34-year-old Puerto Rico native, and a Tyro resident for the past decade, was recently selected as Winston-Salem State University's nursing representative in the Second Annual Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity Bowl, which pitted five schools of higher learning against each other in competition to solve a hypothetical case study in front of a live audience at Wake Forest Biotech Place in Winston-Salem."We finished second to Appalachian State, but we were OK with it," she reasoned.Other schools competing in the prestigious event included Wake Forest University, Wake Forest School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.The teams were comprised of graduate students who were selected for their expertise in 11 health care disciplines, from nursing to divinity.Perez-Furr's team took home a mere $100 and recognition from peers, but she says, "the experience of working with others to decrease health care disparities" was invaluable. "Your health and everyone's health is everyone's problem," she observes in a phrase that has become her health care mantra.The fictional case study centered around an elementary student whose teacher became concerned about the student being overweight. The teacher met with the student's mother and became more aware of the challenges to healthy lifestyles in the community. A health assessment showed 26 percent of the residents were obese and nearly 30 percent of the children lived in poverty. The moderate-size town had an overabundance of fast food restaurants.The teams addressed questions that included examining which stakeholders should play a role in implementing a public health policy, and if a public policy approach is necessary or if it would be effective."The goal of the MACHE Bowl is to demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary thinking with regard to health issues like diabetes," explained Ronny Bell, professor of epidemiology and prevention at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and director of the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity, the event's organizing sponsor.Perez-Furr, however, already has lots of hands-on experience in the real medical world. She works in the labor and delivery department at Wake Forest Baptist Health — Lexington Medical Center.Her supervisor at LMC is impressed. "I have known Nancy for more than 10 years. Although I first met her while she was taking care of adult patients, she really found her niche when she moved to the labor and delivery nursing role," says Clyde Bristow III, director of acute care services.As an intern, Perez-Furr worked some 200 hours in the hospital's emergency department.After earning her undergraduate nursing degree from WSSU in 2009, she entered the school's highly competitive nurse practitioner program, one in which only about 30 students were accepted."I have 42 days left," she says with a laugh, acknowledging she is counting the days. Her class meets from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday. There is more school ahead, though. She was one of only eight selected to the school's Doctorate of Nursing Practice program, which she will start in August."I'm hoping to land a job somewhere in the community where I can serve the underinsured or disadvantaged. Davidson County is an area that fits," she said.Perez-Furr is the first author of a journal article under review that she says describes her professional mission. It is titled, "Reducing Health Care in Barriers in the Hispanic Population in Forsyth County."With Spanish being her first language and serving as an interpreter at LMC, she has established a rapport with the Hispanic community. "I have lots of good bonds already. I even have a lot of cell phone numbers." She says she sometimes receives odd requests. One of them was a lady calling from the local Auto Zone, asking Perez-Furr to come to the store and translate for her."The fact that she is bilingual is a plus," Bristow says. "Nancy can quickly connect culturally and medically with our Hispanic population during an exciting yet painful time in a mother's life. Her upcoming graduation from WSSU as a nurse practitioner will benefit both the community and practice she chooses."Perez-Furr noted that the most recent Census showed Forsyth County had the state's third-largest increase in the Hispanic population.She has great concern for the underinsured and disadvantaged and their impact on the health care system. Many who have no health insurance use hospital emergency departments for their primary care because hospitals cannot deny treatment for those patients. "We are all paying for that," Perez-Furr said. She envisions nurse practitioners and urgent care facilities playing a more viable role in general medicine.To add to her schedule, she is a nursing instructor at Forsyth Tech.She is also on the move at home, with daughter Jasmine, 6, and son Nicolas, 14, who is playing baseball and was a point guard on Tyro Middle School's basketball team."I marred a Lexington boy (Jason Furr)," Perez-Furr says in explaining how she came to settle in the area.She is thankful for the support of her husband and children, as well as her mother, Delores Baynes.Dwight Davis can be reached at 249-3981, ext, 226 or at dwight.davis@the-dispatch.com.